The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today

Separation of Church & State in Public Schools

She was called "that awful woman" by her neighbors, and "that atheist mother" by newspapers across the country. Her friends stopped returning phone calls rather than risk speaking with her. She was branded a communist, and the Illinois State Legislature nearly outlawed her and her husband from ever working at the state university again. She received up to 200 letters a day, some of the writers claiming they would pray for her; many wishing for much worse.

All because, in 1945, Vashti McCollum would file a historic lawsuit that would forever change the relationship between religion and public school in America - and turn this young housewife from central Illinois into an unlikely champion of the separation of church and state.

In 1940, the Champaign, Illinois public school district instituted a voluntary religion class in its grade schools, something that was being done in school districts across the country. Vashti McCollum initially didn't allow her oldest son, 10-year-old Jim, permission to take the religion class. She believed religion was a personal matter, and not one for the schools, but after persistent begging by Jim, she finally relented. Then she saw the materials being used in the class. "It was indoctrination into the old Christian faith," she remembered. "So I said never again."

So Jim sat out the class, but he was the only one in his classroom who didn't have permission to take the religion class. Not knowing what to do with Jim during the time of religion class, the teacher sat him in a desk in the hall, the same place kids were placed when they were punished. Jim suffered brutal bullying as a result and came home in tears. Vashti McCollum decided that was enough. "Never again," Mrs. McCollum remembered, still angry, "would he be put in the hall." So she sued the Champaign school district to put a stop to the religion class, beginning a three-year odyssey that would change American public schools forever.

Related videos

Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with…

At a time when thirty one states have passed "English Only" laws, four pioneering families put their children in public schools where, from the first day of kindergarten, their teachers speak mostly in a foreign language. Speaking in Tongues follows four diverse kids on a journey to become bilingual. This…

PS DANCE!, two years in the making, interviews 16 kids and captures more than 100 students, who joyfully share the influence of dance on their daily learning. Created by award-winning dance filmmaker Nel Shelby, dance ambassador Jody Gottfried Arnhold, and dance education consultant Joan Finkelstein, PS DANCE! shows that dance…

As college tuition skyrockets and student debt explodes, a powerful new documentary reveals a nationwide fight for control of the heart, soul and finances of America's public universities.
STARVING THE BEAST tells the story of a potent one-two punch roiling public higher education right now: 35 years of systematic defunding…

Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project focuses on the efforts of Detroit's impoverished Cody Rouge community to remove blight and create a safe environment for students at the local schools, including the hundreds of students who attend Cody High School.
In 2014, residents of Cody Rouge, in partnership with Life…

Do politically expedient proposals for more testing prepare children for the challenges of the 21st century? What is the role of schools in a time when the mass media are children's most frequent teachers? In Tomorrow's Children, based on her groundbreaking book of the same name, Riane Eisler offers a…

The gap in opportunities for different races in America remains extreme. Nowhere is this more evident than our nation's top public schools. In New York City, where Blacks and Hispanics make up 70% of the city's school-aged population, they represent less than 5% at the city's most elite public high…

The school brought in the staff of Gender Spectrum to provide training for teachers and administrators as well as an age-appropriate curriculum for students. During this step, everyone involved was empowered to look at their own personal confusion, bias and feelings around gender.
Parents are brought into the mix next,…

In fall 2006, former DJ, point guard and teacher turned first-time principal, James O'Brien, opened a small public high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where 1/3 of residents live below the poverty line and the graduation rate is 40%. With infectious optimism, O'Brien and his team of eight undertook an unconventional…

In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the…

SelectED examines the truths and challenges of public urban education as seen through the lives of high school students at Whitney Young High School. This Chicago public school began as a dream to create a fully integrated school in a racially divided city, and within a riot ravaged neighborhood in…

This film delves into the inherent contradictions and psychological implications of undocumented students trapped at the intersection of education policy and broken immigration system. The stories of four students demonstrate both the dehumanizing effects of marginalization and their determination to receive a higher education.
Experimental sound design, unsynchronized imagery, and…